Montreal’s 2,400 firefighters are calling for a boycott of the prestigious World Police and Fire Games, which are to be held in Montreal in 2017, following a struggle with their employer over recently announced cuts to their pension funds.
Bill 15, which passed earlier this year, has worsened an ongoing dispute between municipal employees and the Quebec provincial government, as well as the municipal administrations which called for the law's adoption. For Montreal firefighters, Bill 15 represents an overall decrease in their pay of approximately 10%.
Montreal's firefighters are not alone in this battle: many other civil servants from various sectors across Quebec have been imposed drastic cutbacks in their pension funds - by boycotting this major event, which relies heavily on local emergency service volunteers and funding from the hosting city's coffers, the firefighters hope to put economic pressure on their employers. 8,000 firefighters from across the province are now boycotting the Games.
Montreal's firefighters' situation is quite similar to that of Memphis' Firefighters, who have recently been resigning en masse, as reported this month in the Wall Street Journal, and to other union-led initiatives by emergency service workers in the US and Canada. It can be argued that their situation exemplifies the struggle between unionized public sector workers and their employers, as austerity measures become more and more prevalent.